Annan, Kufuor Confer 'Local Honours On the Cards'

The President of the World, Mr. Kofi Annan, has been conferring specially with the President of Ghana, Mr. J. A. Kufuor, in Oslo over the period that they have been here and staying at the same hotel.

The private meetings have even touched on prospects for the direction of investment traffic to Ghana and opportunities for development.

While the capital, Oslo, was riveting with pomp and celebration over the momentous event and between elaborate programmes for Mr. Annan, whose speech and pictures have dominated the front pages of the Norwegian press, the two leaders still squeezed time to break bread and speak some decent Twi.

Both Mr. Annan and later on President Kufuor had had audience with the King of Norway, Harrald V, and the Prime Minister Jan Petersen.

Ambushed for his take on the honours bestowed his 'son', a proud President Kufuor said Ghana is enjoying the limelight with Kofi Annan.

He said that he felt obliged to honour Mr. Annan's invitation:

"I came here to give him moral support and the support of our country, to stand by him and to assure him that we are proud of him."

Speaking to the issue of what Ghana would do in recognition of his achievement, President Kufuor noted that whatever honours Ghana would accord him after such an award will be an icing on the cake and in due course

"we will do our bit for him in a way that all Ghana will know that we have got a real hero."

The formal honouring will come later.

"This man is fated by destiny for greatness," he observed.

"Never since independence has any one brought such honour to this country," JAK gushed, choosing his words carefully to accentuate the depth of his recognition and appreciation of the man Kofi Annan.

To another question on the nature of discussion he had had with him, President Kufuor, who is about the same age with Annan, revealed that his relationship with Annan preceded his ascension to the top UN job.

(The President had also received a separate invitation from the Nobel Committee in his own capacity as Ghana's President).

Kofi Annan's father served as a Regional Minister for the Ashanti Region when he, (JAK) was a Deputy Minister (Foreign Affairs) in the second Republic, he recalled.

President also said he had been supportive of the Government, and has been introducing him to key influential leaders with whom he is on first name terms, like World Bank President James Wolfenson and that of the IMF.

"He has been putting in a good word here and there for us."

The President is expected to leave Oslo tonight.

He had had meetings with the Ghanaian community here in Oslo where he spoke about the dual nationality, a matter of grave concern to Ghanaians overseas.

By filing time last night, the cream of the world's classical performers and musicians were expected to perform at the Nobel Peace Prize concert at the Spectrum Hotel to bring the curtains down to the events of the week, which began last Friday with lectures and scholarly presentations by Human Rights groups and NGOs as well.

The only African musician on the star-studded bill is the Senegalese maestro Yousou N'dour, hugely celebrated in Europe and across the world.

Top of the billing is Sir Paul MacCartney, African American Suprano Barbara Hendricks, who is now a Swedish national, Saxophonist Jan Gabarek, originally Haitian born dreadlocked African American Wyclef Jean of Fugees fame, Australian artist Natalie Imbruglia, Japan's Kodo, Brazilian phenomenon Daniela Mercury, Russell Watson of the Oslo Philharmonic Choir, London's conductor Paul Batenan, The Norwegian Radio Orchestra and the acclaimed Centipede Children's choir from the international Norwegian-based Movement for Peace and Love.